There's a bubble -- but does this wave of investor hysteria consider the use case for baby boomers?

From smart phones to smart cars, both public and private entities must consider the needs of older adults in order to help them optimize the use of new technologies, according to the latest issue of Public Policy & Aging Report (PP&AR),  titled “Aging and Technology: The Promise and the Paradox.” A total of eight articles all from authors affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Techno >>> Read more . . .

Young tech developers show ignorance of market size and scale of the people 20 or more years older than they are.

CreateAbility Concepts, Inc. was selected to showcase three new products that assist in the transition from inpatient care to the home, in the new Intelligent Medical Home™ (IM Home) at the HIMSS14 Conference in Orlando, FL last week. These products extend the capabilities of CreateAbility's Independence Keeper system.

This new IM Home addition complimented the already popular Intelligent Hospital Pavilion™ and demonstrated the continuum of health and wellness technology available to recovering patients. >>> Read more . . .

Watching PERS and consumer health tech industries is like watching parallel worlds.  You have to notice. Although offerings are now mobile, they are not moving closer to consumer health tech.  Wander from website to website of the leading players – Philips, Tunstall, ADT, Lifestation, LifeAlert, and so on, in the self-described Medical Alarm industry, regardless of who the company is, services are described and compared in this chart by VRI in the context of the 'emergency' dimension of Personal Emergency Response System/Service.  Okay, you’ve looked over the laundry list of companies in the VRI-crafted chart. Now add a few more mobile PERS offerings that aren’t on the chart – like Verizon Sure Response, Tunstall, GreatCall’s Five Star, MobileHelp, AT&T and Numera.  Verizon’s site offers 'convenience calling' (that is, minutes that can be used for non-emergencies); Numera’s site mentions a future health aspect of its Libris offering; and AT&T’s site talks about Health.  Otherwise, the emphasis is about averting or responding to an emergency. >>> Read more . . .

Digital health tech is the answer – but what are the questions? What new gadgets and apps can make consumers take better care of their own health?  What are the gadgets and apps that help doctors take care of consumers?  Let’s assume that the combination of tech that helps consumers and doctors equals Digital Health.  In this emerging world, do doctors encourage consumers to give these new apps and gadgets a try? What is the digital technology uptake among the worried well and the not-so-well boomer population – a giant and amorphous demographic blob that some marketers want to cultivate.  Even if we added those modifiers that help divide boomers into cohorts – words like caregiving, wealthy, unmarried, educated, grandparents, rural -- it is a challenge for innovators to peer through the just right Digital Health lens and see clearly who is targeted, what they need, and who will pay for the next new thing. >>> Read more . . .

Per Grand View Research, monitoring services revenue, $1.2 billion in 2012, 50% CAGR, 2014 to 2020.

Press releases propagate predictive thought. Most wearables and health-related predictions reflect the universe of themselves, that is, gadget press releases and press hype about the rise in wearables, for example, among consumers. Per IDC, in 2014 “wearables and embedded sensors will become mainstream." What is mainstream, considering that only 32% of consumers are even aware of fitness trackers? >>> Read more . . .

Press releases propagate predictive thought. Most wearables and health-related predictions reflect the universe of themselves, that is, gadget press releases and press hype about the rise in wearables, for example, among consumers. Per IDC, in 2014 "wearables and embedded sensors will become mainstream." What is mainstream, considering that only 32% of consumers are even aware of fitness trackers? Or consider that low-risk prediction: "Certain health care organizations will experiment with Google Glass."  Well, maybe not so much this year -- two months before, a Fast Company article interviewed a surgeon who was experimenting, concluding that the device has a 'long way to go.' >>> Read more . . .

With Canada's aging population accelerating, there is more focus on the growing number of tech-savvy seniors (60 percent) who are seeking digital options for managing their health services remotely, according to a new Accenture NYSE:ACN survey. Although seniors in Canada want access to healthcare technology, such as electronic reminders (58 >>> Read more . . .